Hola, gang. Between Alex recouping from Haligonian jetlag and Bruce doing his annual month on the wagon, the senior staff haven’t exactly been collecting wild and wooly tales of Vancouver nightlife with which to regale you for the past few days. Things have been more on a chill on the couch with Dr. Who and volumes on the history of pro wrestling tip. That might be just as well, as after the customary new year dry spell the record release sched looks to be picking back up to its full head of steam, and there’s a disorderly queue of LPs forming just outside of the HQ’s door awaiting discussion. We’ll be tackling those in due course; until then get a taster of what’s to come with this week’s tracks!

"Push Ce-sa-ro!" *clap, clap, clap-clap-clap*

Severe Illusion, “Postsynaptic Receptor Disruption”
Sweden’s Severe Illusion are an acquired taste. All the things we love about them – their rawness and casual misanthropy, not to mention their gritty style of production – are probably the same things that will put off a lot of casual listeners. Definite Klinik vibes on this track from their new release Deliberate Prefrontal Leucotomy, out now on CD and vinyl from the fine folks at Complete Control Productions. Expect a full review of the record soon. In the meantime, turn this one up and let it rub your bare skin with sandpaper for a few minutes.

3 Teeth, “Nihil (M¥rrĦ Ka Ba Remix)”
You could pen a “how to build anticipation for your LP in the post-download era” textbook and not come up with a test case as ideal as 3 Teeth. It feels like every other week we’re posting another remix commissioned by the LA group which shines a new light on their sound, garners more attention, and works true believers like us into an even bigger lather over their forthcoming debut, recently announced on Artoffact. Thankfully, the deluxe edition of said album is being released with a tooth-shaped USB (we swear we’re not making this up) which’ll collect all these multiform mixes. Fair warning, this video nicely illustrates why the senior staff are both 3 Teeth fans and vegan.

Kangarot, “Fire In The Sky”
Bright orange and squelchy as all hell, this is the first taster we’re getting of Josh Reed’s forthcoming Rejecting Mammalian Humanism album. Dedicated ID:UD readers will remember that we thoroughly dug Reed’s last Kangarot album, Nursery Of New Stars, and the news that his next record will be out on our pal Nick Quarm’s (Brutal Resonance) Juggernaut Media label was a welcome surprise. While still low-fi, “Fire In The Sky” sounds like Reed might be pushing Nursery‘s spacier sounds in a more aggro direction. Regardless, we’re listening.

Fables, “Tsunami”Out now on cassette from I Had An Accident, this collaboration between the moody and ethereal synthwave act Moon Mirror and the slappy drag trickster Blvck Ceiling is some deeply foreboding shit. While both acts tread on the darkside in their original compositions, the combination of their efforts has produced a far deeper and richer blackness than either act has often achieved on their own. We suppose it could nominally fall into the category of all the interesting post-witchy stuff that’s been dropping of late, although a certain kind of fan of classic 4AD might find something to enjoy here as well. Recommended for fans of night shivers, inky pools of shadow and that little frisson that runs up your back when you see something move out of the corner of your eye.Fables by That Was Then This Is Now

Displacer & Nimon, “Creature Comforts”
The first taste of the collab between Toronto IDM-boss Michael Morton and Leeds-based electronic sub-genre polyglot Keef Baker definitely bears the fingerprints of its makers in equal measure. Baker’s dubby bass sounds and skittery drums fuse well with the delicately arranged synth progressions that have marked Morton’s recent work as Displacer, resulting in a smooth cross-boundary listening experience. Full album House of the Dying Sun is out via Hymen records next week, check in for a full review ’round then.

Fake With Braces, “One By One”
Last but not least, some archival fun from the Mikes at Alter Der Ruine. They’ve tossed some demos up from an abandoned 2007 synth rock project which aimed to “tell an epic western story”. If’n you dig on The Faint, The Rapture, or, we dunno, Muse, this’ll probably suit you just right.Break Your Faces by Fake With Braces